Max Ophüls directs Joan Bennett, James Mason and Geraldine Brooks in this thriller where a middle class mother becomes embroiled in murder and blackmail. 

Possibly the sunniest, least hardboiled noir from the key period. Which is not to say it doesn’t churn up adequate amounts of sleaze and oppressision for its lead to navigate. The difference is instead of a gumshoe, a moll or a down on his luck shmoe we have a prim and proper housewife caught unwittingly in the shadows. Joan Bennett essays a woman who finds out how little freedom she has once the underworld puts the squeeze on her. Though wealthy, she has little access to money without her husband’s authorisation. Though independent, she has little privacy in her home or community to engage in conversation or travel without question being asked and her movements noted. Still, she shows steely resolve in her interactions with her malefactors. She focuses on keeping her daughter safe, her husband’s name unblemished while trying to find a solution to her ever worsening problems. All the while not even realising that her racketeer is falling for her, trying to find his own way out for her, and wistfully himself, on realising he has put the muscle on to someone uncommonly decent. Mason plays this tarnished rogue touchingly. Ophüls frames and lights it all imaginatively, often beautifully. When the tragedy comes, it is affecting but neat.

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